The Village Printing Shop, Haarlem, Holland

In Charles Frederick Ulrich's The Village Printing Shop, Haarlem, Holland, a boy pauses in his work for a drink of water while in the background two men operate a platen printing press in a spartan workroom illuminated from an open window. The scene is precisely detailed, from the ornament on the cast-iron stove to the clutter on the table top in front of the boy, where a bottle of water and a chipped second cup are casually placed amidst stacked blocks of type and other printing-related paraphernalia. The distant gaze of the boy as he drinks, facing but perhaps not seeing the blank wall before him, the obscuring of one man by his downward glance and the other by the interposition of the stove and its pipe, and the play of bright outdoor light over the scene further contribute to the impression of a single casual moment recorded with the dispassionate accuracy of a camera lens.

In the late nineteenth century, the Netherlands drew scores of American artists eager to paint its picturesque rural villages and quaintly garbed folk as practitioners of traditional ways of life. Ulrich painted The Village Printing Shop, Haarlem, Holland during five months in 1884 that he spent in Haarlem, a small city of some forty thousand then poised on the brink of substantial growth. Most American artists painted the Netherlands as a place of timeless rural tradition, showing its people in old-fashioned costume, but Ulrich departed from such typical romanticization. Instead, he painted a representative aspect of contemporary urban reality: this print shop is a modern workplace dominated by iron technology—in the form of the stove as well as the platen press and machine made type—controlled by men in prosaic modern dress. The boy taking a break from work suggests the monotony of employment in the low-ceilinged, rather comfortless and crowded room.

Ulrich sent his canvas home to New York for display in the inaugural exhibition of the American Art Association in 1884. One reviewer pointed out that the utilitarian recalled American print shops. The artist may have intended this correspondence between Dutch and American shops, since many Americans at the time admired the Netherlands as a birthplace of the liberal political ideals upon which the United States was founded. More particularly, at the time Ulrich painted The Village Printing Shop, Haarlem, Holland, Haarlem contended with the German city of Mentz for the title of the birthplace of moveable type, the invention of which was key to the spread of literacy and the ideal of freedom of the press.1 Presented as an unedited glimpse of modern reality, Ulrich's image of the print shop also subtly celebrates the shared political values that for nineteenth-century Americans distinguished enlightened, advanced societies. The centrality of the youth in Ulrich's composition further associates these ideals with the future in both the old world and the new.

1. Annette Stott, Holland Mania: The Unknown Dutch Period in American Art & Culture (Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1998), 110-113.

Inaugural Exhibition, American Art Association, New York, New York, 1884.

Inter-State Industrial Exposition of Chicago: Sixteenth Annual Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois, September 5–October 20, 1888, no. 418.

The American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth, Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc., New York, New York, November 10–28, 1970, no. 110 (as The Village Print Shop).

American Narrative Painting, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, October 1–November 17, 1974 (as The Village Print Shop). [exh. cat.]

The Painters' America, Rural and Urban Life, 1810–1910, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York (organizer). Venues: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, September 18–November 10, 1974; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, December 2, 1974–January 19, 1975; Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, February 10–March 30, 1975 (as The Village Print Shop). [exh. cat.]

The Growing Spectrum of American Art, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, September 20–November 9, 1975 (as The Village Print Shop).

Munich & American Realism in the 19th Century, E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, California (organizer). Venues: E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, California, October 28–December 10, 1978 (as The Village Print Shop). [exh. cat.]

Nineteenth Century Genre Painting from The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, November 15, 1985–January 12, 1986.

A Century of Caring, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (organizer). Venue: Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 18–August 3, 1986 (as The Village Print Shop).

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987 (as The Village Print Shop). [exh. cat.]

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Life in 19th Century America, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 24–September 6, 1987.

An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 28–October 1, 1988 (as The Village Print Shop).

Painting Progress: American Art and the Idea of Technology, 1800–1917, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, October 11–December 31, 1991 (as The Village Print Shop). [exh. cat.]

ViceVersa: Deutsche Maler In Amerika, Amerikanische Maler in Deutschland, 1813–1913 (Vice Versa: German Painters in America, American Painters in Germany, 1813–1913), Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (organizer). Venue: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany, September 17–December 1, 1996. [exh. cat.]

Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001 (as The Village Print Shop). [exh. cat.]

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003 (on exhibit extended run: November 2, 2002–March 2, 2003).

The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940 (Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains 1840–1940), Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 15–May 25, 2003; Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 8–August 17, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Copley to Cassatt: Masterworks from the Terra Collection, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, and Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, September 5–December 7, 2003.

A Narrative of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 13–October 31, 2004.

Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880–1914," Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia and Singer Laren Museum, Laren, The Netherlands (organizers). Venues: Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, September 28, 2009–January 10, 2010; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio, February 5–May 2, 2010; Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 21–August 15, 2010; Singer Laren Museum, Laren, The Netherlands, September 15, 2010–January 16, 2011. [exh. cat.]

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Montezuma. "My Note Book." Art Amateur 12:2 (January 1885): 28–29. Text p. 28.

The American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth. (exh. cat., Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc.). New York: Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc., 1970. Ill. no. 110, p. 63 (as The Village Print Shop).

Williams, Jr., Hermann Warner. Mirror to the American Past: A Survey of American Genre Painting: 1750–1900. Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society, 1973. Text p. 206; fig. 200, p. 207 (black & white as The Village Print Shop).

Hills, Patricia. The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810–1910. (exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art). New York: Praeger Publishers in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974. Text p. 121; ill. no. 143, p. 121 (black & white as The Village Print Shop).

Hoopes, Donelson. American Narrative Painting. (exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles County Museum of Art in association with Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1974. Text p. 176; ill. no. 84, p. 177 (black & white as The Village Print Shop).

The Magazine Antiques 114:4 (October 1978): 646. Ill. p. 646 (color as The Village Print Shop).

West, Richard. Munich and American Realism in the 19th Century. (exh. cat., E. B. Crocker Art Gallery). Sacramento, California: E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, 1978. Text p. 62; ill. p. 107 (black & white as Village Print Shop).

Annual Report. Lawter Chemicals, Inc., 1979. Ill. cover.

Sokol, David M. "The Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois." The Magazine Antiques 126:5 (November 1984): 1156–69. Pl. V, p. 1158 (color as The Village Print Shop).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-124, p. 233 (color as The Village Print Shop).

Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover." The Journal of the American Medical Association 263:7 (February 16, 1990): 928. Text p. 928; ill. cover (color as The Village Print Shop).

Da Costa Nunes, Jadviga M. Painting Progress: American Art & the Idea of Technology, 1800–1917. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Allentown Art Museum, 1991. Ill. cover (color as The Village Print Shop).

Amrhein, Manfred. Philatelic Literature: A History and a Select Bibliography From 1861 to 1991. Vol. 1. San Jose, Costa Rica: Manfred Amrhein, 1992. Ill. p. 132 (color as The Village Print Shop).

Bott, Katarine M. ViceVersa: Deutsche Maler In Amerika, Amerikanische Maler in Deutschland, 1813–1913 (Vice Versa: German Painters in America, American Painters in Germany, 1813–1913). (exh. cat., Deutsches Historisches Museum). Munchen, Germany: Hirmer Verlag, 1996. Ill. (color).

Stott, Annette. Holland Mania: The Unknown Dutch Period in American Art and Culture. Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 1998. Text pp. 110–13; fig. 61 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2003. Text pp. 22, 30 (checklist); ill. cover (color), p. 39 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains, 1840–1940. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2003. Text pp. 22, 30 (checklist); ill. cover (color), p. 39 (color).

McCullough, Holly Koons and Annette Stott. Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880–1914. American Art Review (September 2009): 108–15. Text pp. 112–13; ill. p. 113 (color).

Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880–1914. (exh. cat., Telfair Museum of Art) Savannah, Georgia: Telfair Books, 2009. Text, pp. 25, 220 (cat. 70), ill. pp. 20, detail (color), 221 (color).